


When Pigs Talk

by Llama1412



Series: Chronic Pain [3]
Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Child Abuse, Chronic Pain, Drug Use, Gen, Talking Animals, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24165139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llama1412/pseuds/Llama1412
Summary: When seeking pain relief, Yennefer takes something that makes the pigs in her pig pen start talking. It’s the start of an interesting evening.
Series: Chronic Pain [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667773
Comments: 8
Kudos: 69
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	When Pigs Talk

**Author's Note:**

> For the Banned Together Bingo prompt Talking Pigs.

Yennefer had known pain her entire life. She’d been born with a twisted spine that stretched her muscles oddly and made her entire back ache constantly. It limited her movement and made even the simplest task difficult and frustrating. 

It was also the reason her mother’s husband made her live in the pig pen. He hated her, she knew – viewed her as no better than the pigs. Less, even – at least the pigs could be sold for a profit.

_ Later, Yennefer would learn that she could be sold for a profit too. A measly four marks. The pig had been offered for ten. _

Just how much more the pigs were valued was proven to her when Boris, a big brown pig that loved to nibble at Yennefer’s skirts, grew ill. Her mother’s husband called the healer for  _ him.  _ Not that Yennefer would have been able to afford the healer’s services anyway – and from the curl of the woman’s lip when she saw Yennefer, she probably wouldn’t deign help her. 

Boris would recover, but he was in pain. She knew what that was like. Only Boris was given herbs for  _ his _ pain.

Yennefer felt bad, stealing his pain relief. She didn’t take  _ all _ of it – she liked Boris, she didn’t want him to be in pain. The pigs were the only friends she had. But she was desperate and so, so tired of being in pain.

The first hint she had that something might be strange happened when she was talking to the pigs. “No one else calls you Boris,” Yennefer told him seriously, pulling her skirts out of his range. She was sitting up on her bedding in the pig pen. “But you’re definitely a Boris.” She turned to the piglet trying to squirm his way into her lap, even though he was really a bit too big for that. “Just like you’re a Basil, aren’t you?” She scratched at Basil’s bristly back.

Then the strange thing happened. “You give good scritches.” Basil said.

Yes, Basil. As in, Basil the pig. Basil the pig had just spoken. For real. Out loud.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have taken those herbs,” Yenn said to herself. This was very, very strange and definitely not normal.

On the other hand, how many times had she wished her pigs could respond to her. They were the only ones that ever  _ wanted _ to be around her, and she was so tired of one-sided conversations.

Boris said, “eh, who cares? You left me enough that I’m feeling fine. How does it work for you?”

“Actually… pretty well!” Yennefer stretched her neck to each side as far as she could (which was much further on her right than her left) and marveled that she  _ could _ do that without pain shooting down her spine. She smiled at Boris. “Thanks for sharing.”

“Hey, you’re one of us. We look after each other.”

There must have been dust in the wind, because suddenly she was tearing up. She’d never felt so honored to be called a pig before. Clearing her throat, Yennefer rubbed her knuckles over her eyes and then turned to look at the other three pigs in the pen. “Can you talk, too?”

Faye – who weighed at least three times Yennefer’s bodyweight and was not afraid to use it to knock the others down when she felt they needed it – sidled up to her and leaned against her leg. “Of course, dear.”

“Do you think I can eat the wood?” Cecil asked. 

Yennefer snorted. Cecil always was greedy over food – he had to be first at the trough, and if you got in his way, gods help you. Getting shoved aside by a 200lb pig was  _ not _ fun. Yennefer had learned to stay out of his way. “No, you can’t eat the fence,” Yennefer scolded.

“I think I  _ could _ ,” she heard Cecil mumble, but she was distracted by the little piglet barreling at her from across the pen.

“YennYennYennYenn,” Tiffany chanted, gaining speed. The piglet may have been little, but she still weighed more than Yenn, and Yenn was starting to panic. She couldn’t get up from the ground very easily, and certainly not before Tiffany ran her over. Yennefer closed her eyes tightly, ready for the pain to invade her reality again.

Instead, she heard a loud thunk and realized that Cecil had put his bulk to good use, standing in front of her to intercept Tiffany. Tiffany was making indignant noises, but Yenn was too shaken to worry about her right now. She pet slowly over Basil’s back, and her hands gradually stopped shaking.

When her hearing came back into focus, she realized that the pigs appeared to be having an argument. Well, Basil was reveling in her pets and probably on his way to a nap on her legs, which would be a problem later. But the other pigs – Boris, Cecil, Faye, and Tiffany – were shouting.

“You can’t just go running at her!” Faye scolded, and Tiffany actually seemed to shrink in on herself. Her hide also seemed to be a startling green color, even though Yennefer was sure it had been pink and brown speckled earlier.

It was probably fine.

“Come on, don’t fight,” she said. “I feel like I should do something special while I can understand all of you.”

“Did you see Marigold’s dress yesterday?” Boris snorted at her. The dress in question had been a flour sack, badly dyed with berries.

Yennefer giggled. “It was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”

“Not as bad as the Jackson widow’s mourning veil.” Cecil said.

“Ooooh, or did you see Adam last week? That tunic was awful” Tiffany bounced as she spoke. It almost looked like she was levitating, but Yennefer was pretty sure that was the herbs.

It was kind of nice, actually. She was fairly certain the thing she was feeling right now was what ‘no pain’ felt like. She could never really be sure, but she decided she liked this feeling. And the effects were kind of fun, too.

Yennefer had never been allowed to gossip with the other busybodies around the market. If she approached a cluster, they rapidly dispersed, leaving her to clumsily walk back alone. 

But she didn’t have to approach this cluster. Instead, the pigs all gathered around her the way they usually did. And she could understand them! “Do you always do this?” she asked.

“What?”

“Judge people’s clothes.” 

Cecil hesitated. “How badly would you judge us if we said yes?”

Yennefer laughed. “I think I want to join in!”

“Wonderful,” Faye said. “Because we  _ have _ to talk about Claudia’s dress!”

Yennefer grinned and settled down in her bed, surrounded by her friends. She was ready for a nice long gossip session.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m now headcanoning that Yennefer developed her scathing wit and sharp tongue gossiping with her pigs.
> 
> Just for laughs, here are my notes for this fic:  
> Boris – boy pig; tries to eat Yenn’s clothes (Stubborn little bastard man)  
> Cecil – boy pig; always has to be first at the food trough and will push others out of the way. He BIG (Greedy boy)  
> Basil – boy piglet; likes to cuddle next to Yenn when she sleeps. (Cuddlebug)  
> Tiffany – girl piglet; doesn’t like men, very particular about things (Misandry the pig)  
> Faye – girl pig; will only sleep in a certain place and will tell off the others for knocking into her. (HBIC. Also mom friend)


End file.
